Month: August 2016

Obama proposes ‘startup visas’ for entrepreneurs to start companies in the U.S

Posted on by LiveitupSoul

We all are going through the pieces of content stating that a new proposal is presented by Obama led government in the favor of entrepreneurs. Let us have a clear understanding of what we are hearing.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is publishing the White House’s International Entrepreneur Rule. The program grants temporary visas to startup founders from other countries if their companies meet certain requirements, like financing from U.S. investors.

The report published by the U.S Citizenship and Immigration services (USCIS).

“America’s economy has long benefitted from the contributions of immigrant entrepreneurs, from Main Street to Silicon Valley,” said Director León Rodríguez. “This proposed rule, when finalized, will help our economy grow by expanding immigration options for foreign entrepreneurs who meet certain criteria for creating jobs, attracting investment and generating revenue in the U.S.”

 

To qualify for what the White House calls “startup visas,” entrepreneurs must own at least 15 percent of a U.S. startup, and demonstrate the company’s growth potential, investments from qualified American investors, and “significant public benefit to the United States.”

The rule would allow entrepreneurs that fit those requirements to stay in the U.S. for up to two years. They could then apply for an additional three years if the company shows continued growth and benefit to the American public (like increases in capital investment, job creation, or revenue).

The administrative reforms announced by the President in November 2014, if fully implemented, could boost the nation’s economic output by up to $250 billion, while shrinking the federal deficit by $65 billion over the next ten years.  – Tom Kalil (White House Deputy Director of Tech and Innovation)

Big brands like Microsoft, Amazon or other tech cos., rely heavily on H1-B visas to bring skilled workers from other countries into the U.S. It works only for people migrating to this country to work for established companies but this will open up possibilities for entrepreneurs to start their own businesses in the U.S., and that was a change welcomed by many tech and startup-oriented groups.

We welcome this initiative and also apply our efforts to nurture more and more startups. This will also boost the synergical impact in the Entrepreneurship world that has been spreaded through the endless efforts by our community –  Igniting Entrepreneurs.

http://www.fb.com/ignitingEntrepreneurs

 

Must read story of a man who made 43000 Crore from nothing

Posted on by LiveitupSoul

The inspirational stories of fight against odds, unbelievable struggle and extraordinary success are always popular. But few stories make the space that can not be occupied by others. Few stories become inspiration  for generations.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was the son of an upper-middle-class dentist. Bill Gates was a millionaire before he started Microsoft in 1975. Google founder Larry Page’s parents were both professors; Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s father was a professor and his mother was a NASA researcher. But the man we are talking about is the only son of a construction labourer.

The story of 39 year old Jan Koum(as of 2015), is inspiration for the current generation on internet entrepreneurs. A man who did not have hot water facility at his home, the man who cleaned the floors of a grocery store at the age of 16, the man who stood in the que for collecting food stamps, is now a Silicon Valley badshah.

He owns an asset of more than rupees “430000000000”, as of May 2015. It is U.S. $ 6.8 billion which accounts to more than rupees 43 thousand crore Indian Rupees.

Jan Koum is man behind a product used by 800 million users( as of April 2015) globally. He is the man behind the most popular messaging app “WhatsApp Messenger”.

The story of Jan Koum is worth reading and learning. Jan was born and raised in a village on the outskirts of Kiev, Ukraine. He was the only child to his parents, his mother was a housewife and father was an ordinary construction labourer.

He belonged to a family miles away from technical innovations and science. His family rarely talked on phone because they believed that phone are recorded by the state(government). Jan practically had nothing to ignite his passion for technology.

Koum once said to Forbes “he still pines for the rural life,” he told Wired that life was rough: “It was so run-down that our school didn’t even have an inside bathroom,” he said. “Imagine the Ukrainian winter, -20°C, where little kids have to stroll across the parking lot to use the bathroom. Society was extremely closed off: you can read 1984, but living there was experiencing it.”

Prompted by the unstable political environment in Ukraine — students were regularly questioned for mocking politicians in class — and increasing anti-Semitism in the Ukraine, Koum and his mother moved to Mountain View, California, when he was 16. Short on cash, the two stayed in a modest two-bedroom apartment on government assistance. Koum’s father, who died in 1997, never made it to Mountain View. Koum’s mother worked as a babysitter to make ends meet, while he swept the floor of a grocery store. Later, when his mother was diagnosed with cancer, they lived off her disability payments. (Koum’s mother died in 2000.)

An indifferent student, Koum, who didn’t have a computer until age 19, taught himself computer networking from a manual he bought at a used bookstore and later returned. Koum attended San Jose State University and worked part-time as a security tester for accounting firm Ernst & Young. Part of the work involved inspecting Yahoo’s advertising system, a task that prompted Koum to cross paths with Brian Acton, who later became his business partner.

Koum worked with Yahoo for nine long years, on October 31, 2007, at a saving of $ 4,00,000( appr. Rs.25,00,000 as of May 2015), he thought of of freeing up for some time. In the next one year, he did not do much but the developments in his life paved the path for him.

In 2009, Koum bought an iPhone, he could not use his iPhone in the gymnasium as their policies did not allow it. He started using Skype while in gym but frequently forgot his password. By this time, he had decided  to create an app that worked seamlessly on one’s iPhone by using a phone number for identification. Koum convinced Brian Acton and started working on “WhatsApp”.

They both were looking better employment opportunities simultaneously, by this time they both were turned down by Facebook. Brian Acton was turned down by Twitter too.

Around that time, the founders got a small group of former Yahoo employees to pool $250,000 in seed money. Early days were the stuff of startup legend. The company leased space in the same building as Evernote, which later took over the whole space and kicked them out. The office furniture was cheap stuff from IKEA and employees wore blankets when it got cold. In early 2010, WhatsApp was bringing in about $5,000 a month. Things steadily improved until the company’s breakthrough year, 2011, when WhatsApp hit the top 20 in Apple’s App Store.

Since then, there has been no looking back. Till 2014, WhatsApp made such a big impact that Mark Zuckerberg had send a friends request to Koum. Now when Koum is a billionaire, he still has not forgot his past. When he signed the deal with Facebook, he chose the same social services building as the venue where he stood in a queue to collect food stamps.

GST Bill : Impact on Startups !

Posted on by LiveitupSoul

What is GST?

The biggest indirect tax reform since 1947, GST bill is expected to bring about an economic integration of the Indian economy. GST is gonna make the process of indirect taxation, easier and effective. The tax payers will pay one consolidated tax instead of the bundles of taxes including State Value-Added Tax (VAT), Central Excise, Service Tax, Entry Tax or Octroi and other indirect taxes.

“The challenges faced due to a complicated tax system on business transactions has been debated for a long time”. This tax will be levied on manufacture, sale and consumption of goods as well as services at the Central and State government levels. “The distinction between Goods and Services will be reduced gradually, thereby making tax compliances easier,”. Most of the developed countries use this form of taxation for ease and convenience and to avoid double taxation.

GST would be payable on price actually paid or payable, termed as “transaction value”, which will include packing cost, commission, and all other expenses incurred for sales. This tax will be payable at the final point of the consumption. The GST will have two components – the Central GST and the State GST, thus, empowering both the State and Central government to legislate and administer their respective taxes.

Except the Tamil Nadu government, which believes that this bill will take away the autonomy of the State government, all other States are in support of the bill.

What would be the impact of GST on Startups?

GST is believed to benefit all businesses in India, but small businesses can rejoice for the following reasons:

1.   Ease of doing business: Any new business needs to have a VAT registration from sales tax department. A business operating in many States has to face a lot of issues regarding the different procedures and fees in each state. GST will bring about a uniformity in process and centralised registration that will make starting business and expanding in different States much simpler.

2.   Higher exemptions to new businesses: As per the current structure, any business with a turnover of more than Rs five lakh has to get VAT registration and pay VAT. GST will make this limit higher, to upto Rs 10 lakh and, further to it, businesses with turnover between Rs 10 and 50 lakh will be taxed at a lower rates. This will bring respite from tax burdens to newly established businesses.

3.   Easy taxation: Currently, a startup spends a lot of time and energy to manage the various taxes at various points. Adhering to different regulations at different States make the process very complex. GST will simplify the process by integrating all taxes, making the process of paying tax simpler.

4.   Respite for businesses in both sales and services: Businesses like restaurants, which fall under both sales and service taxation, have to calculate the VAT and service tax on both items separately. This makes the calculations process very complex. GST will not distinguish between sales and services, and thus the tax calculation will be done on total.

5.  Reduction in logistics cost and time across States: Many transport vehicles get delayed during movement across States due to small border tax and checkpost issues. Interstate movement will become cheaper and less time consuming, as these taxes will be eliminated. “The whole Indian market opens up for manufacturers as interstate supply becomes tax-neutral,”. This will also bring down costs associated with maintaining high stocks, as there will be undisrupted movement of goods. As per a CRISIL analysis, GST can reduce logistics costs of companies producing non-bulk goods (comprising all goods besides the primary bulk commodities transported by railways – coal, iron ore, cement, steel, food grains, fertilisers) by as much as 20 percent.

How does GST reduce the cost of doing business? Unlike VAT and service tax, GST is essentially a tax on value addition at each stage, and levied at point of sale and not purchase. This means that the consumer bears the GST charged by only the last dealer in the supply chain, thus making it cheaper for the consumer and increasing the profitability of his business.

Secondly, there are various other taxes levied by the Central and State government on production, manufacture and distributive trade, where no set-off is available in the form of input tax credit. These taxes accumulate and lead to increasing the cost of final product which the consumer has to bear. GST subsumes all these taxes which are set off at each stage starting from producer and ending at the retailer, thus easing the burden on final consumer.

GST will assist in bringing down fiscal deficit by boosting tax collection and simplifying the tax regime, which is expected to bring about better compliance.

To conclude, we can say that somehow it is a win-win situation for the Government as well as the consumer. Entrepreneurs, directly or indirectly will be benefitted by GST.

#IgnitingEntrepreneurs